The invention relates to a cleaning composite for optical and magneto-optical storage disks, composed of a material capable of absorbing a cleaning liquid.
Cleaning cloths are used both for dry and for wet cleaning of storage disks. For wet cleaning, a drop of a cleaning liquid is applied to a cleaning cloth, the cleaning liquid being, in general, alcohols dissolved in water, to which wetting agents, antistatic agents and surfactants have been added. With the cleaning cloth moistened in this manner, that section of the storage disk which is accessible through the shutter opening in the disk cassette is wiped from the inside to the outside in order to remove dust, fingerprints, electrostatic charges and the like.
EP-A-0417726 discloses, for example, a book-like container in which a disk cassette with an optical storage disk is held when the shutter is open. The container contains a shutter locking means for opening the disk cassette shutter and a spindle which supports the optical storage disk so that it can rotate. An attachment for rotating the storage disk simplifies the manual rotation of the storage disk during the cleaning operation, which is carried out with the aid of a cleaning cloth and a cleaning liquid. The rotation attachment and the cleaning materials are housed in the book-like housing.
Another cleaning means on the market has an electrically driven spindle bearing on which the storage disk to be cleaned is mounted in order to rotate it by means of an electric drive during the cleaning operation. Cleaning is carried out by pressing a cleaning cloth impregnated with the cleaning liquid against that section of the storage disk which is exposed by the shutter. This cleaning means operates completely automatically in that the cleaning cloth or the cleaning pad is moved radially toward the circumference of the storage disk by means of a motor while the storage disk rotates simultaneously. More detailed investigations show that, in this completely automatic cleaning means, the cleaning pads very frequently rest unevenly on the surface of the storage disk to be cleaned, so that cleaning takes place in a very nonuniform manner. Individual gauging of the contact pressure of the cleaning pad on the storage disk is not possible.
In the case of the known cleaning cloths, fold-free contact with the storage disk during the cleaning operation is in general likewise impossible, so that the cleaning effect is nonuniform since the contact area on the storage disk is not continuous, owing to folding of the cleaning cloth. The known cleaning cloths cannot be stored without individual packaging or an intermediate layer, since soiling of the back when solvents are used leads to soiling of the cleaning side of the cloths.